Hello everyone, this is Deemetry & Larissa. We are humbly asking for help to pay for a recent orthopedic surgery performed on our nine-year-old indoor cat, Zoei. This surgery was done in order to save her rear right leg, and make her as whole as possible after a severe injury.

Below is much more information about Zoei’s background, condition, and what led to the her need for orthopedic surgery. We are more than happy to answer any questions regarding Zoei, her care, surgery, and the costs and reasons for this GoFundMe. If you are willing, able, and find this cause worthy, we would greatly and deeply appreciate any donations you can make to assist us with the cost of Zoei’s surgery. Regardless, we thank you very much for your time, and hope you have a lovely day.

Some backstory regarding Zoei:

Nine years ago, Zoei was a tiny mewling kitten found in the middle of the street while Deemetry was working as a pool cleaner. He quickly fell in love with her, and decided to keep her as his pet. She has been with him ever since, adored and cared for. When Zoei and Larissa first met, Zoei took to Larissa immediately, and Larissa has loved her dearly ever since. Zoei is beloved by Deemetry’s Mom, our Grandma Susan, and many other friends and family. She is known as a “ninja cat” that lets you know when she wants love—and when she does she REALLY does. Zoei has many loving nicknames: Zo-Thorpe, Zo-Factor, Zo-Zo, Zo-Mead, and “Mommas”. We see Zoei as our beloved baby girl and nothing less. (Even when she has been and can be a bit of a brat, not to mention quite spicy with veterinarians. )

One night about two months ago, while we were asleep, Zoei unfortunately squeezed through our open second-story window. Somehow she fell, and then—as we slept—she became lost in the neighborhood around our apartment complex. Of course it did not take us long to notice Zoei’s absence the following morning. (Zoei enjoys laying in bed with us and is never far during feeding time each morning.) We searched our entire apartment, several times, frantically seeking her out.

Never in a million years did we think Zoei would go out our second-floor window, but we quickly realized the truth. So, with determination, we began to look for her.

With help from our family, friends, and neighbors, and attempting every method we could find and imagine, we eventually managed to find Zoei. We were immensely relieved, but soon struck with horror as we realized Zoei was very, very badly hurt. She had a long, wide gash that stretched from her upper right thigh all the way around to her inner thigh, and another across her lower stomach. Her muscle tissue was completely exposed, and the wounds were discolored, dry, and filled with dirt, leaves, and other debris. Her leg also seemed to be heavily disjointed and not sitting right at all.

Fearful that Zoei would not survive if we didn’t act quickly, we immediately took her to an emergency vet. We learned from X-rays that all of the ligaments and muscle tendons in Zoei’s right stifle (knee) were completely destroyed and torn. The emergency vet proposed two options: amputate the leg, or attempt to eventually repair the leg after the wounds recover from intensive care.

Wanting to give Zoei a fighting chance, we chose the latter. Her wounds were cleaned, irrigated, and sutured closed. The following morning, we took her home, immensely grateful that she was at least alive.

For a month, each day, we administered her many medications, fed her by hand, cleaned her, massaged her, and irrigated her wounds (which she really did not like one bit, but needed). Zoei also had several vet visits, through which we discovered her wounds were severely infected. This prevented us from jumping into orthopedic surgery sooner, as it would put Zoei’s life at risk.

After all of this, Zoei’s gash wounds healed very well. But Zoei was not whole yet, because her leg was still terribly disfigured. Now that she was free of infection, something could be done about it.

After further consultation, it was determined that Zoei required orthopedic surgery to repair her knee. The surgery would align her bones with synthetic ligaments, so she could walk again properly. The surgery went very well, and Zoei is now in the middle of the recovery process, where we again (happily) give her all of the intense love and care she deserves. We are happy to report that she is recovering very well so far! Her surgical incision is completely healed, she is clearly showing massively improved function of her leg, and she’s also much happier and lively!

Thank you for reading this far, and we thank you again for your time and any contribution you may be able to make.

(For full transparency, here is a picture of the surgery bill.)